Almost every product that is sold shares one important feature. It must be transported from the place of manufacture and delivered to the ultimate consumer or user. Most of the transportation of goods is accomplished by transporting the goods in bulk. Whether the goods are shipped via ground, air, or sea, they are typically packaged together for ease of transportation.
Often goods are packaged together on supporting structures called pallets. These pallets are usually made of wood, however, as manufacturing technology has improved and the cost of plastic has come down, manufacturers are now making some pallets out of plastic. The pallet is designed to accomplish several objectives, one of which is to support the weight of the packaged goods. The pallet is designed to include supporting elements that allow a heavy load to rest on top of the pallet. Typically a pallet is designed to have hollow spaces between a top deck and a bottom deck. The top deck is provided such that the goods or merchandise can be stacked on the top deck of the pallet in large quantities. The bottom deck of the pallet is designed to sit on the ground, the floor of a warehouse, or the floor of a transport vehicle. In addition to being able to support the weight of the load, the pallet must provide a stable platform upon which to rest the packaged goods. This is important as it is desirable to minimize potential movement of the load during transport. Due to the strength of pallets, goods can be packaged together and place upon a pallet despite being quite heavy. Typically mechanical assistance is required to lift the packaged load onto and off of the pallet.
In addition to possessing the ability to support a heavy load, pallets are designed to allow the use of mechanical devices to assist in moving and transporting the pallet and goods from one location to another. Pallets typically have one or more places built into their structure that will accept a tine from a forklift, jack, or other lifting device. This allows the stack of goods and the pallet to be easily moved by a forklift from one place to another. Theses indentations or slots are usually raised up to about two inches from the bottom surface of the pallet so the tines from a forklift can fit underneath the pallet, sliding in from one side toward the other through the hollow space. Once the tines are slid into the pallet hollow space, they are raised to engage contact points on the pallet. Thus, the forklift tines can exert lifting force on multiple areas of the pallet giving the tines more surface area on which to exert a lifting force.
Pallets are typically the structural support for goods as they are moved from one location to another. Use of pallets is highly efficient and has proven to be a very effective method to transport goods, merchandise, heavy machinery, and other large, heavy objects. However, there are drawbacks to the use of pallets. Thus, a need has arisen for improved pallets and transportation mechanisms designed to allow one to easily move heavy pallets from place to place. This includes moving a pallet from a truck into a store.
A recurring problem with the current state of the art regarding pallets and pallet jacks, or dollies, is that the pallet jack typically uses hard plastic or metal wheels. The hard plastic or metal wheels are designed to be used on hard, smooth concrete floors, such as that found in warehouses. These wheels cause damage to retail floor surfaces such as tile when they move across it due to the large weight of the pallet. The hard and small diameter wheels do not roll well on uneven surfaces such as parking lots and sidewalks, nor do they easily roll over door thresholds into and out of retail establishments.
Since a pallet is designed to support a large amount of weight, that weight must in turn be supported by whatever apparatus is used to move the pallet. In most cases, the pallet jack has a number of wheels that allow it to move once the pallet is contacted and raised. In particular, the lift wheels that are typically in the tines must be small in order to fit in the tine. When the lift is operated so that the tines are raised, the lift typically both raises the tines and lowers the lift wheels such that the pallet is supported by the lift wheels near the front of the pallet and the lift wheels behind the hydraulic lift.
The wheels on standard pallet jacks are designed to support heavy loads, but they are also typically small and placed at various locations on the pallet jack. The force exerted on the wheels is a result of a heavy pallet concentrating all its weight and the weight of the load that it is supporting onto several small wheels. While the wheels allow the pallet jack to move the pallet, rolling underneath as the pallet jack is moved, the wheels can damage the floor surface simply due to the large amount of weight exerted by the pallet and load down to the surface through the wheels. The small contact patch of the wheel to the floor must support a large amount of weight through a typically very small surface area. This can lead to damage to the surface due to excess weight being applied to a small surface area. Also, this small surface area makes it difficult to push the pallet jack across parking lots, sidewalks, and over door thresholds, or any area where the surface is uneven. This is especially true when the floor surface is soft or is made of material that is flexible. On the other hand, if the floor material is made of a very hard surface such as stone tile, the weight of the pallet concentrated on a small wheel can mar or otherwise damage the surface. The small surface area of the wheel that contacts the floor has a tremendous amount of weight to support, and that weight passes force through the wheel and directly onto the floor. Repeated transport of a pallet jack supporting a heavy load over a surface can cause damage to the surface resulting in unsightly marks, cracks, or even holes. Therefore there is a need for a pallet jack that will minimize the risk of causing damage to surfaces when a heavily laden pallet is passed over the surface by means of a pallet jack.
While the prior art has attempted to address the issues described above, there remain several significant and important problems with the available options in the prior art. An important limitation to the prior art is the rate at which mechanical failures occur in the devices designed to raise and move a pallet. This problem has led to a large segment of the market looking for new and novel solutions to the problem. An early attempt to solve these problems was to use custom pallets. However, while the use of a custom pallet may aid in the transport of the load, the custom pallet must still be raised by a pallet lift and transported by a pallet lift using the standard wheels. Further, achieving a successful transition to custom pallets is frustrated by the wear on the custom pallet. Typically, custom pallets are higher than a standard pallet, and the feet of the custom pallet, that part that contacts the ground, tend to flex over time, especially when the pallet is supporting an abnormally heavy load. Further, custom pallets must be manufactured and are not widely used. In contrast, there are a huge number of standard, wooden pallets already in existence, and a device and method that would solve these problems while still using a standard pallet is desirable.
Another issue with the use of a custom pallet is the corresponding need to use a custom lift apparatus. If the custom pallet differs from a standard pallet in any significant dimensions, a standard lift dolly or pallet jack will not necessarily fit under the pallet. Thus, if one is unable to use a standard dolly to lift and move a custom pallet, one would need to possess a special dolly for each kind of pallet one encounters. Since pallets are routinely reused and reloaded, this may prove difficult and limits the applicability and usefulness of a custom pallet.
In addition to being an onsite issue, the use of a custom pallet and an associated pallet jack will further drive up the costs for the end user. Further, the issues related to the custom pallets and custom dolly apparatuses have the potential to create reliability problems in the future. Thus, continued use of the standard pallet is desirable, if a solution to the problems associated with the standard pallet can be addressed and solved.
Another difficulty and problem associated with the use of standard pallets and pallet jacks is that it is often difficult to maneuver the pallet jack in and out of narrow doorways without damaging the surface or doorway. As a result of the ease of which pallets are used to transport goods, many devices are manufactured to aid in the movement of pallets. Such devices include forklifts, pallet jacks, and other mechanical apparatus designed specifically to interact with standard, wooden pallets. As a result, most pallets are of a standard size, which in the United States is 40 inches by 48 inches. As pallets are designed to hold large amounts of goods, it is desirable to make them as large a practical in order to move as much merchandise as possible. To this end, several different sizes of pallets have been developed. Specifically, pallets are now made in 33″×39″, 32″×40″, 24″×40″, and some, designed for use with single tine jacks, are smaller than 24 inches wide.
Moving a large or heavy pallet requires care when moving through a narrow doorway or store aisles. A problem with the current state of the art with pallet jacks is that they are difficult to move through narrow passageways due to the size of the wheels. The small, lift wheels make it difficult to turn the pallet jacks on a small turning radius and require more force to turn. Thus, there is a need for a pallet jack that is easy to move and turn with a small radius, making it easier to maneuver in small areas and through narrow doorways and aisles.